The monsters that inhabit Linda Hayden’s classroom like to clean. Some of them like to play outside. One fears dogs, another is afraid of zombies. Blue, green and pink are among their favorite colors, while pizza and chicken are some of their choice foods.

The monsters all live in the minds of Hayden’s first-grade students at Dr. Samuel A. Mudd Elementary School, and soon the students will come face-to-face with the monsters in the flesh.

Sort of. Not so much flesh — more like felt and googly eyes.

Hayden and her daughter, Samantha Hayden, a family and consumer science teacher at St. Charles High School, teamed up for a project that benefits their students — both in elementary and high school.

Samantha said she is always looking for new sewing ideas to introduce to her fashion design students. Most students in the classes come in with ideas of creating their own clothing but have no sewing experience. In class they first learn to hand sew — basic stitches, sewing on a button. Once they get the hang of it, they graduate to more advanced projects. But there’s only so many Christmas ornaments a kid can make before they need something else to work on.

While browsing online, Samantha ran across a project where a person drew a monster and made it using fabric scraps and stuffing. She knew her students were up to the challenge.

Luckily, she knew someone — her mom — who had a classroom full of imaginative students who could dream up monsters of all designs. “I could work it into a writing activity,” Hayden said. “There are sentence starters, and the students have to finish the sentence. They used their imaginations and came up with little stories.”

Among the sentence starters were “My monster’s name is …,” “My monster’s favorite color is …,” and “I love when my monster …”

“Most of the time, especially in first grade, you can work anything into a reading project, or a writing project,” Hayden said.

For the design of the monsters, Hayden set some ground rules. They had to be a simple design and could only include up to three different colors. The perimeters would make it a bit easier on the students sewing them.

At St. Charles, Samantha has two fashion design classes in which students learn to sew. “I thought the monsters would be fun,” she said. “It gets students thinking about how to put all this stuff together.”

When it came to working out how to put together a bespoke stuffie that sprang from a child’s imagination, Samantha left it up to the student sewing. “They have to figure out the materials, how to attach [pieces],” she said.

“You have to walk through it,” Samantha said of the planning stage. “Then you have to think what works for your brain.”

While she knew the students in Fashion Design II could complete the project, Samantha was surprised that those in other classes also took up the challenge. Samantha would like to see other schools develop a joint project like this, especially after seeing how her high school students took to it and how quickly they completed the work.

“It was fun to help a kid’s ideas come to a reality,” sophomore Franky Fongang said. “And you’re learning a new skill that you can use.”

The monsters will land in the hands of their creators on Monday, May 12, when the Dr. Mudd students make a stop at St. Charles on the way to a field trip with their first-grade peers.

About CCPS

Charles County Public Schools provides 28,162 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 38 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership and prepares students for life, careers and higher education.

The Charles County public school system does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability in its programs, activities or employment practices. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Blanchard, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (students) or Nikial M. Majors, Title IX/ADA/Section 504 Coordinator (employees/ adults), at Charles County Public Schools, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, P.O. Box 2770, La Plata, MD 20646; 301-932-6610/301-870-3814. For special accommodations call 301-934-7230 or TDD 1-800-735-2258 two weeks prior to the event.  CCPS provides nondiscriminatory equal access to school facilities in accordance with its Use of Facilities rules to designated youth groups (including, but not limited to, the Boy Scouts).